On 20 Jan 2006 09:43:16 -0800, "Ilya the Bat"
<ibshambat2004@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>The Prince and the Mermaid
>
>A Children's Story
>
>The Prince and the Mermaid fell in love, and the Mermaid cut off her
>tail. They married and lived in a big castle on the side of the ocean.
>The Prince loved the Mermaid, and the Mermaid loved the Prince. And
>soon they had a daughter whom they named Alicia.
>
>The Prince and the Mermaid loved each other. But the Mermaid was
>unhappy. First it was just a feeling, and she punished herself for it.
>She said to herself, "You live in a castle and you are married to a
>wonderful man. Can't you see that you have a beautiful life?" But her
>unhappiness grew.
>
>The Prince was aware that the Mermaid was unhappy, and it ate him
>inside. He asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I don't know. I'm
>unhappy. I am sorry." He held her and tried to comfort her. And though
>the Mermaid knew that he loved her - and that she also loved him - she
>just could not stop the pain and depression inside.
>
>As the years went by, they grew apart. The Prince was angry at the
>Mermaid, and the Mermaid was angry at herself. He kept asking her, "Why
>can't you be like other wives? Why can't you be perfect?" And she would
>just answer, "I don't know," and she would cry.
>
>The Prince's anger with his wife grew. In frustration he would insult
>her and hit her and tell her that she was not worthy of the life she
>had. And as he grew angrier, the Mermaid stopped seeing the man she had
>loved and saw a monster. She thought, "I've married the Prince, and he
>turned into a frog." And then she thought, "Maybe it was me kissing him
>that made that happen."
>
>Feeling her luminous life turned to darkness - and thinking herself at
>fault - the Mermaid ran out on the beach. Her magnificent blond hair
>rained on her shoulders and covered them with gold. Her elegant arms
>and legs scintillated in the light of the moon, as tears ran down her
>cheeks. She had come to the ocean - to the place from where she had
>come - to jump into it and drown and end all her miseries.
>
>Then suddenly from the ocean came an indistinct wail. The Mermaid felt
>something pulling to her, something tugging her on the heart and her
>lungs, something calling to her from the water. She came to the water's
>edge, and coming toward her she saw a face. It was a dolphin, moving in
>wavelike motion.
>
>At first she could not make out what the Dolphin was saying. Her memory
>of her days in the ocean was a blur, and she had trouble recollecting
>the language. Then she started remembering and understood. The voice
>said, "You have cut off your tail to be with the Prince. But because
>you have left a part of yourself in the ocean, you could not truly be
>with the Prince, and he could not truly be with you. You were out of
>your medium. You did not know how to live on land, and you were missing
>your home. You can't live like that any more. Go back to the ocean, put
>on your tail, and invite the Prince to come swimming with you."
>
>The Mermaid said, "I can't just leave him. I am married to him, and we
>have a child."
>
>The Dolphin spoke in return. "He loved you when you were in the ocean.
>The more you lived on the land, however, the less he remembered the
>person that he had loved. If you come into the ocean again, he will see
>you again for the Mermaid he loved, and he will again love you."
>
>Reluctantly the Mermaid waded into the ocean. She wrote a note to the
>Prince, and a seagull delivered it. It said, "My love, I cannot live
>like this any longer. You are destroying me, and I am destroying you.
>Come to the ocean, and swim with me. Do you remember when I was in the
>ocean and you loved me? We can love each other like that again."
>
>In the morning Alicia knocked on her father's door. "What's the
>matter?" asked the Prince. His daughter answered, "Where's Mommy?" The
>Prince asked, "What do you mean, where's Mommy?" Then, seeing his
>wife's side of the bed empty, he looked around and found the note.
>
>The Prince flew into a fury and sent for the archers. Surrounded by
>archers, he went to the ocean. The Dolphin swam to the beach.
>
>"What's this thing?" asked the Prince. As the Dolphin started to speak,
>one of the archers, named Atticus, started translating.
>
>"What have you done with my wife?" shouted the Prince. The Dolphin
>answered, "She was going to kill herself. I saved her life." "Saved her
>life?" the Prince continued to shout. "How about saving the family? I
>married her. She made a vow to be with me all her life. How dare you
>destroy our marriage?"
>
>The Dolphin responded, "She could not save the marriage that you had
>and still live. You loved her when she was in the ocean. But you made
>her cut off her tail, and she could no longer be the person you loved."
>
>
>"Does it matter that she could no longer be the person I loved?" the
>Prince continued to shout. "She is my wife! I decide what kind of a
>person she can and can't be. She is the mother of my daughter! She has
>responsibilities!" At which point the Prince ordered the archers to
>take aim at the Dolphin.
>
>The Dolphin looked the Prince in the face. He said, "You can kill me,
>but that will not save your marriage. You loved her when she was in the
>water, but in the castle she could not be what you loved. Your life was
>destroying her and destroying also what you loved. She was dying in
>that castle - that life was killing her - can't you see that? Kill me
>and your wife will simply die. Learn to swim with her, and you will
>again be with her."
>
>The Prince told the archers to put their bows down. He went back to the
>palace and brooded for days. On some days he wanted to kill the
>Dolphin; on others he wanted to kill his wife. He even thought of
>making huge chains and whipping the ocean.
>
>There were other women who wanted to be with the Prince. They comforted
>him, and he thought of being with them. But his thoughts always came
>back to the Mermaid. "I must bring my wife back," he decided, "whatever
>it takes."
>
>As he was walking along a river feeding into the ocean, he heard a
>voice that said, "Jump in the river." "Jump in the river?" he
>responded, "What do you mean, jump in the river?"
>
>"It means just what I've said," responded the voice. "Jump in the river
>and learn to swim, and then you can have your wife back."
>
>He thought that was a ridiculous thing to do, but he wanted to gain
>back his wife at all costs. So he did. He took off his golden robe and
>jumped in the river. The current carried him to the ocean.
>
>He did not know how to swim very well, but his determination made him
>stronger. He learned quickly how to swim, better than he had ever swam
>before. He swam like a master after a couple hours, and as he kept
>swimming in the ocean he saw the Mermaid.
>
>"What have you done?" he shouted at her. "What have you done to my
>family? How could you have betrayed me?" The Mermaid said, "I could not
>keep living like this. I am a mermaid, and I belong in the ocean. You
>loved me when I was in the ocean - can't you love me now that you meet
>me in the ocean again? Come swim with me, darling. I have so much to
>show you."
>
>She continued, "Please understand me. I don't want to leave you behind;
>I just have to regain what I was, or else I would die. I am asking you
>to come swim with me, and then we can at last be together completely."
>
>"I want to tear you to shreds!" said the Prince. "You are my wife, and
>you belong to me!" The Mermaid responded, "Tear me to shreds, and do
>not have your wife at all. Or come with me, and we'll regain what we
>had when we got married."
>
>A thousand thoughts crowded the Prince's head. He wanted to kill, he
>wanted to shout, he wanted to punch and hit and scream at the universe
>for having done this to him; but the more he saw the Mermaid swim,
>effortlessly, elegantly, beautifully, sensuously, and at last happily,
>in the ocean that was her home, love filled his heart for this
>magnificent creature, and he remembered their romance. He swam up to
>the Mermaid, and they embraced. They swam out to the ocean and
>frolicked for hours, looking at the beautiful fish and richly decorated
>coral reefs and the clear blue sky above them.
>
>And they kept swimming at night and going back to the palace during the
>day and loved each other happily for as long as they remained alive.
>
>Ilya Shambat
it's not bad but it's mostly your own stuff that you are throwing out.
Your own archetypes and feelings. Clearly the father/man figure is
immature whereas the woman figure is eerily spiritual after having
been immature. Interesting nonetheless, but far from reaching
universal archetypes in a way that appeals to every reader (every
reader that has an open mind and a taste for symbolic writing, of
course lol)
I'd say keep working on these and clear your stuff through it. With
time you might reach some higher grounds.
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